The Trouble with Fireys...
by Roo1
Summary: Two young, one legged Firey twins escape the Labyrinth through a mirror, and end up in Sarah's house... it's unfinished... and no, I don't know how it ends yet... Chapter 3 now, and we have an idea for an ending! Whoo!
1. The Trouble With Fireys...

Two small, red coloured shadows slipped silently into the Castle at the Centre of the Labyrinth - it wasn't custom for the Fireys to go this far into the Labyrinth, but these Fireys weren't you average Fireys.  
For starters, they were smaller, they were children, and each had only one leg, due to a silly accident when the first twin, Flopsy, had set a snare up to catch and unfortunate beast passing through the Firey Forest, and had snared off the second twin, Mopsy's, leg.  
They then lost the leg, and had been fighting over Flopsy's leg, when they're oh-so-sensible parents had taken the extra leg, leaving them each with one, and a crutch.  
"This way!" whispered Flopsy urgently, moving with the crutch through the throne room, where one or two Goblin guards lay sleeping.  
"Keep your leg on!" insisted Mopsy, moving a little more slowly, struggling to see through her name-sake mop hair, which filled her eyes at almost all times.  
Going behind the throne, the pair found what they were looking for: A door, a large wooden door, through a narrow corridor behind Jareth's Throne.  
"We found it!" cried Flopsy, forgetting to be quiet.  
"I don't see it!" yelled Mopsy "But I'll celebrate anyway!" She began to dance a silly jig on one leg and a crutch, giggling hysterically.  
Flopsy ignored her sister, and the awakening Goblins, and eyed the door suspiciously "How are we going to get through?"  
"Ain't it so great we found it?!" continued Mopsy, as per usual not knowing when to let it go, and swayed a little, sending her foot sliding under the door.  
"Heeey... not bad, Mopsy! You figured it out!!" Flopsy began to pull herself apart, each limb moving of it's own accord beneath the door.

A few moments later, when both were on the other side, and reassembled, with Goblin guards finally on their tails, and standing sheepishly outside the door, half heartedly calling "Open Up...", Flopsy said "This is it!"  
Mopsy began to celebrate again, dancing around and leaning on her crutch.  
Absently, she slapped Flopsy on the back, sending the arm which wasn't holding the crutch flying across the room, towards a large free-standing mirror.  
The arm disappeared right through it, with a soft ripple, and then the glass turned smooth again.  
"OOPS!!!" said Mopsy, looking at the mirror in awe.  
"You idiot!" wailed Flopsy, forgetting the stupid LEgend about the stupid Magic mirror, and hopping angrily "We don't even know what the mirror does!!! YOU could have just INCINER... BURNED MY ARM INTO A SMALL PILE OF WHITE POWDER!"  
"Sorry!" sniffled Mopsy "I'll get it BACK, okay?"  
Mopsy did her version of a run on one leg and a crutch towards the mirror, jumping towards it, and disappearing through it.  
"M-Mopsy?" Flopsy was an inch from the mirror's surface by now "Did you get burned to a powder?"  
"Lemme check!" Mopsy called back through the mirror "...No!"  
"Life is good!" declared Flopsy as she clambered carefully through the mirror, listening to a Goblin pound the door once and call "Come back here..."

Sarah was alone in the house, 5 year old Toby asleep in his room upstairs.   
She was trying not to think about the fact she was alone, babysitting, for the first time in four years since the Labyrinth.  
Sighing, Sarah flicked the channel. There was nothing on. Finally, she settled on a re-run of "Bewitched".  
Thud.  
Sarah stiffened, a noise, from her parents bedroom... That's where Toby used to sleep and ...  
She forced herself to stop that train of thought before it reached it's destination, and went upstairs, telling herself it was to make sure Toby wasn't up to something.

Toby was sound asleep, but Sarah was still curious, like she always would be no doubt, and headed towards the room.  
She opened the door, and flicked on the lights.  
Automatically, her heart leapt into her throat, and she looked around for Goblins. There were none. Of course there weren't - she hadn't called them, so why would they be here? Evidentally she was letting her imagination run wild.  
As she turned to go downstairs, she didn't see the print of a small arm where it had hit the window only moments before.

"Who was that? She didn't look like ... like... like..." Mopsy struggled to find a meaning to why she had even begun her sentence, and when she couldn't, she said "...like a Goblin."  
"She's not a Goblin," said Flopsy, picking up her arm from where it fell, and getting comfy on her crutch again "Let's see what we can find!"  
Flopsy put her hand against the pane on the French Windows, and pushing.  
Mopsy soon cleared the hair out of her eyes for long enough to see what was going on, and began to help.  
Finally, they had the door open just enough for them to squeeze through.  
"This room's boring." muttered Flopsy, looking around "There's nothing good in here!"  
"Another door! Will there be a better mirror behind it?" asked Mopsy, looking at the door quizzically.  
"Maybe!" said Flopsy, watching as Mopsy opened the door.  
"Nope, no mirror." said Mopsy sadly, "But there's a staircase and a few other doors out here!"  
"What are we standing around in this crap place for, then?!" demanded Flopsy, assuming the role of LEader, and heading for the stairs.

Soon, the pair had made it downstairs, tip-toeing past the living room, where Sarah was glowering boredly at the TV.  
"We'll say hello later," whispered Mopsy, waiting for Flopsy to sneak over the door opening.  
"Yeah," agreed Flopsy, leaning on the hip with an entire leg attached, and pushing herself slowly across the doorway.  
Mopsy immitated her movements, only on her left side, meaning she wasn't facing the living room, and eventually, when they had both gotten by, and managed to stand up again, they were in the kitchen.  
Mopsy climbed up onto a chair, and onto a worktop from there, and found a jar of Sugar.  
Like all young children usually do, once she had gotten it open, she put a handful of the substand into her mouth.  
"MMMMMMM!!" she cried, swallowing it "This stuff is good!!!"  
"Look!" Flopsy held up a can of Diet Pepsi, shaking it "This is heavy! Ooh! It has a thing at the top!!!" Flopsy pulled at the ring pull, trying to open the can, which was half her size.  
"Mopsy..." she panted "...help!"  
Mopsy took the ring-pull, and Flopsy held onto the can, and soon it at exploded all over the Kitchen.  
Mopsy swallowed what could be counted as a harmful amout of Pepsi, before saying "I'm taking this stuff back with meee!!!"

Sarah yawned, and stretched.  
She was thirsty... sighing, she stood up, and ambled towards the kitchen.  
When she got there and turned on the lights, she forgot all about wanting a drink.  
The frige was open, there were buttery foot prints, leading from the butter, which was upturned on the floor, out of the room, and a trail of Sugar, Pepsi everywhere in the kitchen, cheese slices thrown like frisbees around the worktops, the sink was full of chocolate syrup, a mountain of coffree grains surrounded the kettle, which was on, and making a hideous noise.  
Sarah turned off the kettle quickly, and looked at the footprints.  
_Goblins._ she thought angrily, and followed the trail, growing more and more panicked as they led upstairs, towards Toby's room.  
A sense of foreboding filled Sarah as she saw his door ajar, she was having severe flashbacks to the night this had happened before... the light wouldn't work, she was certain of it...  
Sarah pushed the door open and flicked the light switch.  
Light flooded the room.  
Toby was wide awake, his mouth full of butter, chocolate syrup, Pepsi and Sugar, and a wide grin on his face.  
On either side of him, sat two blitzed Fireys, they looked like they were wearing an english breakfast.  
"Oh, hi!" called one, with hair flopping into it's eyes.  
"My name's Flopsy!" Offered the other, "This is my sister Mopsy!"  
Sarah screamed.  
Toby screamed.  
Flopsy and Mopsy screamed.  
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!!! HORRIBLE LITTLE BEASTS!!!" the Fireys were one of Sarah's worst memories "You can't have my head! OR his head! Get away!!!"  
"Scuse me, Lady?" said Flopsy politely, sturggling on the soft mattress with her crutch to get to the end of the bed "But we have our own heads."  
"We do?" said Mopsy stupidly, looking around, and finally placed her hand on her head "Oh yeah! I never saw before!"  
Sarah blinked, visibly shaking "T-toby... are you alright?"  
"Uh huh!" said Toby absently, he was playing with Mopsy's crutch as she devoured more and more Sugar.  
"F...Floppy?" Sarah said to Flopsy "What are you-"  
"Flopsy." interrupted the small Firey, grinning.  
"...right. What are you and Mop..sy doing here?" asked Sarah, resisting the urge to grab the fiends head, hurl it away, and scream for Hoggle... help. She meant help.  
"We sneaked here," said Mopsy through the Sugar "The Goblins is all asleep."  
"Were all asleep," Sarah corrected instinctively, not knowing what to do, obviously they hadn't been sent, and they didn't seem to be the same age as the other Fireys.  
Either way, they were making a hideous mess.  
"You have to stop making this mess!" ordered Sarah "Give me the Sugar, the pepsi, the syrup, and... you know what? Flopsy, you can just keep that butter right there..."

The Goblins weren't bright, but they had eventually figured out that their pleas were getting nowhere with two Fireys who were no longer in the room beyond the door.  
"You better wake up 'is Majesty!" said one, pointing to another.  
"I'm not!"  
"Me either."  
"I say we pretend this never happened!" agreed another "'is Majesty will be very... upset wiff us if he don't be in the mood fer bad news!"  
"... what'll we do?!" wailed the fourth Guard "We wasn't all s'posed ta be asleep!!!"  
"Le's ask Roo!" suggested the first "She's meanta be the Wise Wummin o' the Goblins!"  
"You go wake 'er up!" The second prodded the first in the stomach "An' come back wiff news!"

Furtle sighed, he was always the one to come up with and carry out daft ideas.  
He made his way down into the Goblin City, one of the Houses nearest the Castle belonged to Roo, an ancient, wrinkled old 'Medicine Woman', more commonly reffered to as a "Damned Voodoo Witch" by many of the Labyrinth's inhabitants who were unfortunate enough to know the bad tempered old bat.  
Furtle was only on guard duty because another wasn't, he actually had a very odd job in the Labyrinth.  
He grew Goblin children.  
The way things worked in the Labyrinth was never the way people from Earth would think it was: Specifically, Goblin children were grown in an actual cabbage patch, with the cabbages, and it was Furtle's job to plant the seeds of the mother and father, and nurture the little beast until it was ready to be "born"._  
What a life,_ thought Furtle, raising his hand, and thudding Roo's door, hard.  
A small, beaked face peeked out, a hideous gobble hanging below the chin.  
"Hello, Static." said Furtle flatly to Roo's 'familiar', Static the Chicken.  
Static looked up at Furtle, wide eyed.  
Slowly, the door opened further, and Roo stood there, holding Static in a wrinkled, grubby little mitt of a hand.  
"What do you want?" she demanded, frowning, causing her face to wrinkle even further, long straight, ratty grey hair hung around her face.  
Furtle groaned, and said "The Guards require your advice."  
"Make it snappy," said Roo impatiently, she had no time for blithering gardeners, not tat this time of night, and not even if they were the only two Goblins left alive.  
"Two young fireys just got into the Mortal Realm, what should we do?"  
"Send the most stupid to wake up Jareth. Goodnight." Roo slammed the door shut.  
"OH YEAH!" yelled Furtle "They send me down here in the dead of NIGHT and you give me the same advice we were all arguing over before?!"  
"Tough," called Roo, heading back to bed.

"WHAT?" yelled Jareth, in a temper because some stupid Goblin he couldn't remember the name of had woken up, and then said that some stupid Fireys had gone into the mortal realm.  
"I said-" began Furtle nervously "That-"  
"Shut up."  
"Sorry, I -"  
"SHUT up..." Jareth paced angrily, he hadn't tried a kidnapping since Sarah had beaten him four years earlier, he had ignored each call, which meant that the mirror, which hadn't been used since the night they had all been at Sarah's house, would still be aimed there.  
"How did they get past the guards? Which Fireys were they?" asked Jareth, calming down a little, hoping for some elaborate plan involving weapons to be the next thing escaping.. Frickle's mouth.  
"The twins," said Furtle, careful to answer the second question first.  
"Aren't they all twins?" said Jareth eventually, unable to distinguish between the Fireys.  
"The one legged twins."  
Ah, he knew who they were... they looked different to the others, so Jareth remembered them.  
"Aren't they children?"  
"Yes, sir..."  
"And they got past the guards." said Jareth, leaning menacingly over Furtle.  
".. the guards were alseep, sir..." Furtle squeezed his eyes shut, expecting to be hurled into the Bog of Eternal Stench.  
Jareht, however, was too preoccupied to be bothered with randomnly shooting messengers, he had to recover the Fireys, before Sarah knew they were in her house...

The End for now... more soon... if I can even be bothered...


	2. Were you born in a FIELD?!

Chapter 2: Were you born in a FIELD?

_A Wee note from Roo: Turns out, I could be bothered *looks at Unicorn Lady's review* Anyone else for the Sarah/Jareth thing? I'm in indecision... YOU decide... you poor people I forced to read this..._

Sarah sighed, Fireys in her house, her parents due home any second, Toby looking like a remnant of a feud between two hysterical Chefs, and something told her it wasn't going to end with all that.  
"Flopsy, Mopsy... you get out of the bed. Infact, Toby, you too..." She was going to have to bathe all three of them... momentarily, she wondered if water would kill the fireys.

Jareth fastened his cloak around his neck, he was in no mood to deal with _Sarah_ of all people, knowing her, he would be hung at dawn for "Releasing Attack Fireys On her". Still, he had no time to ponder over the workings of Sarah's mind, if the Mortal Realm realised that the fireys were not limping squirrels, he was in big trouble.  
"Oh, F... Goblin?" called Jareth over his shoulder "You are coming with me."  
Furtle made a small squeaking sound, and said "Y-your Highness, I'm just a simple Child Gardener... I don't have anything to offer you but hinderance..."   
"Shut up, you're going with me." insisted Jareth, in a flat, informative tone.  
Furtle had no choice in the matter, apparently.

"Bubbles!" yelled Toby, and thrust some soapy bubbles into Mopsy's ear.  
Flopsy, who was bathing in the sink, splashed a large amount of water over Sarah.  
"If you're FIREYS why doesn't the water hurt you?" moaned Sarah, trying to scrub Toby, to no avail, since Mopsy placed the soap in her mouth.  
"UUUUUGGHHH YYYUUUCK!!!" she screamed, not tasting any sugar, and spat it at Sarah.  
"Why..." whimpered Sarah, as the soap bounced off her forehead, and onto the floor.  
"What does that do?" asked Flopsy, clambering out of the sink, leading another rush of water onto the already drenched floor, and lifting up the toilet brush.  
"It's the toilet brush," said Sarah automatically "It's dirty... put it down."  
"Okay." said Flopsy, and put the toilet brush down on the floor,away from it's holder.  
"Never having children... never ever..." swore Sarah, as she turned her back to put the brush back into place.  
When she turned back around, Toby was there, beaming at her.  
Flopsy and Mopsy were gone, a trail of drips behind them down the hall.  
"You would think with only a leg each-"  
"They would be slower?" a voice said from behind them. Sarah whirled around, looking at the Goblin who had spoken, then to the left of him... her eyes followed the legs up, eventually stopping at Jareth's face.  
"What do YOU want?" she demanded angrily, standing up.  
"My Fireys." said Jareth icily, looking around "Where are they?"  
"Beats me," shrugged Sarah "As long as they're away from here I don't care."  
"They can't have gone far." Jareth ignored Sarah's tone, and turned his back on her, evidentally planning to ransack the house, take Flopsy and Mopsy, and disappear.  
"DON'T go any further!" yelled Sarah, making Jareth stop in his tracks "You're not going to rip apart my hopuse looking for them. No matter what you say, or do." She wasn't afraid of him, not this time. This time, he was in her world, and he probably didn't know what a blender was, let alone how to fit in.  
"Well, what would you suggest?" purred Jareth smoothly, giving her a 'Now you've started this you can finish it, because I'm fabulous and difficult' kind of look.  
"... I hate you." said Sarah feebly, folding her arms "It's-"  
Jareth waited, grinning as she caught herself from saying that oh-so-familiar catch phrase.  
"It's going to be difficult." she said eventually, looking down as Furtle prodded her leg with a nervous finger.  
"Don't touch me!" she said sharply, moving away "What do you want?"  
"The baby..."  
"YOU CAN'T HAVE THE BABY!!!" cried Sarah, turning to grab Toby.  
He was gone.  
"... is gone." finished Furtle "I've been trying to get both of your attention for ten minutes!!! Some Goblins came in, and took him away."  
"I would have noticed!" objected Sarah, glaring at Jareth.  
"This isn't MY fault-" began Jareth heatedly, looking around "I didn't see any Goblins EITHER! Furtle. You better not be lying."  
"I'm not!!!" said Furtle frantically "They did!!! How would they get in here though?"  
"I don't kno-..." Jareth paused, putting a gloved finger nervously into his mouth "... I..."  
"What did you do?!" demanded Sarah "I'm not losing my little brother to your hideous little goons, Jareth!"  
"... I left the door open." said Jareth simply, waiting for a reaction.  
Furtle put his forehead against the bathtub, moaning in horror at the idea.  
"What?" said Sarah, the meaning of what had just happened not sinking in.  
"I left the door open," repeated Jareth "Now the entire Labyrinth has a pathway-"  
"RIGHT INTO MY HOUSE?!"  
"Precisely. Is that a problem?" Jareth almost flinched at the look Sarah gave him, and inwardly admitted he was acting like a pedantic git.  
"Is that a ... YOU HAVE BEEN LOOKING AFTER THE LABYRINTH FOR GOD KNOWS HOW MANY DAMNED CENTURIES, AND YOU JEOPARDIZE THE ENTIRE SITUATION BY LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN?! WERE YOU BORN IN A FIELD?!" ranted Sarah "WHOEVER is in charge of YOU, Jareth, must be SO damned proud of YOU right now! I mean, c'mon! How hard is it to close a DOOR?!"  
Jareth stood patiently, showing no reaction to the hysterical rant that was displayed before him, and when Sarah had finally stopped hurling insults at him, he said "Are you finished?"  
"...what...?" panted Sarah, running her hand through her hair.  
"Are you finished, dear?"  
"Yes."  
"Excellent. Furtle, go back through the portal, and close the door. There's a good boy."  
Sarah stared in disbelief at Jareth, _That man is very annoying..._ she thought venomously.

Flopsy and Mopsy, not even realising the trouble they had begun, were out on the darkened street.  
"I want more sweeties!" insisted Mopsy, hobbling along behind her sister.  
"We'll find some!" promised Flopsy, watching in utter amazement as a car flew by.

Furtle made it back into the mirror room, and before he closed the door, her ran out into nthe Throne room, and gazed into the crystal that Jareth used to monitor the Labyrinth.  
The place looked deserted... they must all have...   
As Furtle replaced the crystal, Roo ambled over.  
"Hey Furty," she croaked "I heard there was a free passport to a land of mystery!"  
"DON'T!!!" cried Furtle, "Jareth's in there and he's really mad!"  
"Interesting," said Roo, scooping up Static and wandering into the room.  
"Ooohhh..." Furtle followed her, pulling the door closed.

"Furtle!" said Sarah, as the Goblin returned, with an older female Goblin and a chicken "How bad was it...?"  
Furtle looked up at Sarah with sad eyes "The Labyrinth is practically empty."  
Jareth cursed something in a language Sarah wasn't sure existed, but evidentally, Furtle understood, because he looked a little offended.  
"Did you shut the door?" demanded Jareth, looking down at Furtle with steely eyes.  
"Y-yes..." said Furtle "B-but-"  
"But nothing." Jareth turned, and exited the bathroom, heading for what he thought was Sarah's parents room.  
Instead, he found Sarah's room, and in it were Ludo, Didymus, Ambrosious, and Hoggle.  
"And there I thought you were intelligent enough to stay home," growled Jareth, looming over Hoggle.  
"Jareth bad!" declared Ludo, raising his fist.  
"LUDO DON'T BE STUPID!" yelled Sarah, running between the two "We need him right now."  
"Well, as long as I'm of use," said Jareth sarcastically, stepping back from Sarah a bit.  
"It's so great to see you guys," said Sarah, tearfully hugging Hoggle, then Didymus, and eventually stretching her arms as far as they would go around Ludo.  
"Well, as tear-jerking as this is..." said Jareth, "We have work to do."  
"Yeah," agreed Sarah "Let's split into teams, and cover the area, find a way to bring anything you see from the Labyrinth here."  
Everyone stood silently. Either Sarah, or Jareth would need to make the teams.  
"Fine," said Sarah eventually "Jareth, Hoggle and I will cover the Mall, and the surrounding area -"  
"... the what?" interupted Jareth, blinking.  
"The... nevermind. Just do exactly what I tell you." replied Sarah, trying to think who would work best one what team.  
"No." said Jareth stubbornly "I don't think so."  
"Well it's my home town!"  
"They're my escaped creatures!"  
"It's my little brother!"  
"IT'S MY ENTIRE KINGDOM!!!"  
"You could just stay here."  
"I could just wait for them to come home." said Jareth sharply "They will get bored here, eventually. just because your town would be destroyed and few would be left alive is no skin off my nose."  
"Oh ... you...." Sarah was seething "I can't be on a team with you! I'll go with Hoggle and Didymus, Roo and Furtle can go together, Ludo, will you stay here? Jareth, you're on your _own_."  
"Well, fine." hissed Jareth, turning into an owl right before Sarah's eyes, and flapping out of the window.  
"Okay, guys, we'll meet back here in two hours, with whoever we've found, take them back to the Labyrinth, lock them in, come back for more, okay?" sighed Sarah, blinking away the shock of Jareth morphing into a nocturnal bird.  
"Right," said Hoggle, standing beside Sarah.  
"Come along, Ambrosious!" said Didymus brightly "A brand new challenge, brought to us by the fair maiden! We shall NOT back down! For we-" Didymus stopped, and clicked Ambrosious on, so they would catch up with Sarah and Hoggle.

Chapter 3 Later ... right now I must go to the television...

By the way ... I need ta know about the Jareth/Sarah thing... should they, or shouldn't they? they seem to argue an awful lot...

Meh. Whatever.

~Roo~


	3. How hard can it be to recover a Five yea...

Chapter 3: 

As the world began to wake up, Jareth soared high above the rest of the world, looking for Labyrinth inhabitants, and feuding silently over being left on his own, and having his power ripped out from under him by Sarah.  
Down below, he could see a crowd of people gathering, and pointing upwards, at first, he thought that they were stupid, and had never seen an owl before, then, intelligence kicked in, and he swopped down inconspicuously behind the crowd, rearranging himself back into his more human shape, and looking up.

"Mooommm... there are things outsiiiiiddde...."  
"Don't be silly, honey!"

Flopsy and Mopsy were in a sub-urban street, looking around rather boredly.  
"Nobody to play with!" said Mopsy childishly, flicking her moppy hair out of her small, beady, pig like eyes and looking around briefly.  
"Let's get on that thing!" Flopsy pointed to a milk-cart, which was parked outside someone's house.   
Carefully, the managed to haul themselves onto the back, and when its owner reappeared, they were on their way to ... well, where ever they were going to end up.

Roo and Furtle had been searching for a very long time, at least, Furtle had been.  
So far, Roo and Static had stopped to 'check out' about two hundred things, including a McDonalds, where they frightened the morning staff half to death by marching in with a chicken, demanding to know if they had seen any other Goblins.  
"Roo, I really do think that perhaps some discretion wouldn't go amiss in this situation," worried Furtle, as Roo wandered absently below a park bench, with three shocked elderly women sitting on it, wide eyed.  
"Nonsense! Look!" Roo pointed to where a few Goblins were, sitting on an intersection, quite a distance away "Let's hunt em down."

Jareth gulped with what might have been worry, those Goblins couldn't even spell I.Q, and together they would probably make up the intelligence of a piece of plastic.  
They had taken Toby up a high rise building, and three goblins were teetering on the edge of a narrow window sill, with Toby sitting on a corner, looking down in tears.  
"Go on your _own_, Jareth..." muttered Jareth, in an even worse mood now "_We can manage without you, you can find the goblins, Jareth..._ What am I going to do now?" he pondered aloud.  
Sighing, he created a crystal in the palm of his hand, and tossed it up to Toby.  
As it had done in the Escher Room, the crystal mesmerised Toby, leading him along the window sill, with perfect balance.  
"There's only so many times you can walk up and down a bloody window sill..."

Sarah, Hoggle and Didymus were getting nowhere.   
They hadn't seen one person from the Labyrinth, and to be honest, seeing a girl who looked like she had slept on a door step in syrup, butter, sugar and pepsi soaked clothes, and was also with a Fox riding a sheepdog, and a Goblin, was attracting a little too much attention.  
Before Sarah could come up with a brilliant plan that she just _knew_ was in her bath-water covered head somewhere, they saw the Fireys. About fifteen of them, playing a strange game, that seemed to involve scaring the people in the passing vehicles.  
"We need a pla-" began Sarah, "Didymus! STOP!!! The traffic WILL hurt you!" Sarah leaned over, and plcuked Didymus from the sheepdog by the scruff of his neck, Ambrosias stopped dead, as though he had been waiting for the opportunity.  
"Well, I never-" huffed Didymus, as Sarah plonked him onto the ground "We have to lure them back to my house, Hoggle, do you remember the way?"  
"Fair maiden, I must ask you not to-"  
"I think so, Sarah," said Hoggle, over Didymus "Ya... ya don't want me ta do somethin', do ya?"  
"Actually I was thinking you could lead the Fireys back, with the help of the ever ... strong...and...cunning sir Didymus..." Sarah added tactfully, calming Didymus slightly.  
"Just how will I do that? I don't ever do anything!"  
"Hoggle, you took out that robot, remember?" sighed Sarah, wondering if Hoggle would ever get over his self-esteem problems.  
"That wasn't leading Fireys around in a land I didn't know!" whimpered Hoggle "There was lives at stake!"  
"Toby's missing, Hoggle!" begged Sarah "Just tell therm it's a game of Follow the Leader, and they must follow you and do exactly as you do! Didymus can go at the back, and make sure none of them...dare... defy his wrath."  
"Well..."

Up and down. Up and down. The child must be getting dizzy, didn't these humans usually have some sort of rescue service for these kinds of problems?  
Jareth groaned, the crystal was losing energy, he could feel it becoming more thin, and bubble-like.  
There was only one thing for it now, Jareth would have to go and get the little brat, and he planned to make quite sure that the goblins were kicked around the Throne Room for months after this...  
Jareth closed his eyes, and moved back into the shadows, flying out as the owl, and up towards Toby.  
Toby's face was tear-stained, but for the time being, he seemed to have run out.  
Jareth shuddered inwardly at the stickiness of Toby's fingers as he reached automatically for the owl.  
Toby clutched at Jareth, sobbing silently because he couldn't cry any more, and Jareth getting the feeling he was in for a long day, settled down on the childs lap, allowing himself to be petted, which he didn't enjoy particularly, but Toby stopped crying.

Roo, Furtle, and the other goblins were standing in the middle of an intersection, arguing.  
It seemed the renegade Goblins didn't want to return to the Labyrinth, but were in debate because Roo was advising it, and they had been taught to respect her decisions, even though she was mean, and often told them to do stupid things.  
"Roo... hey.. Roo? What would you do in a situation like this one?" Furtle gluped, his eyes widening as a truck loomed over them.  
"A situation just like this one?" said Roo, turning to look at the truck "RUN AWAY!!!"

"This is Sally Barnes, reporting live from an appartment block, where a young child is clinging to the outside of the building. It would also seem that the child is clutching some sort of barn owl, though it is still being determined if the beast is real."  
Sarah had made it to the Mall, and she was walking past an electronics shop, when the News Report flashed onto the screen.  
"Toby..." she gulped, trying to figure out where the apartment building was, it looked like it was all the way across town... "Oh god... an owl..."

OKAY... it's 3am, and I am DEAD beyond any revival ... so... we're leaving it here...


	4. Paparazzis and Slippery Worms

Chapter 4: Paparazzi Pests and Slippery Worms

Sarah ran as fast as she could, looking for the crowds, and TV cameras that would be surrounding the apartment building, when she got there, she fought her way to the front of the crowd, looking up frantically.  
"Where the hell is the fire department?!" she screeched, watching Toby hug the owl.

_Typical, _thought Jareth, looking down at Sarah, _She'll get hysterical over the SLIGHTEST thing...   
_Toby sniffled, hugging Jareth tighter.  
_That hurts..._ thought Jareth, seriously beginning to consider wriggling away from the child and then going to bathe... for hours.  
Absently, he contemplated the safety of morphing back into his human self infront of all those people.

Roo and Furtle, and the others had finally evaded the mystery truck-like beast that had chased them up the high way, poor Static only just escaping by a squashed feather.   
As they crawled off the intersection, Roo found the lichen, with a brick still attached to it, and scooped it up, scolding it for ripping a brick out of the Labyrinth.  
"We have to find the others," said Furtle slowly to the other Goblins, "Jareth will spare you if you find Alf and Ralf, and THE WORM!" Furtle scurried after the worm, who cried "'Allo!!!!" and tried to squirm away from the Goblins.  
Roo watched in disgust, Lichen in one hand and Static in the other, as Furtle let the worm escape time after time.  
"Furtle, close your hands around it!" she advised, as the worm giggled in that _accent_ and said "You'll never catch me! Oi'm just a worm!"

"TOBY!" called Sarah, looking up.  
Sally Barnes, that infernal news woman, trotted over to Sarah, and said "Are you the mother of the child?"  
"No," replied Sarah flatly "He's my brother. TOBY!"  
"So, how did he get up there? Do you live in that apartment block?" asked Sarah, as more cameras huddled around Sarah.  
"No, I live across town,"  
"How did he get up there?"  
"Spiderman took him. Excuse me."  
"The bitter words of a sister who endangered her little brother," said Sally dramatically "If the child survives, one wonders if this little girl will be left to babysit ever again."  
Sarah cringed at Sally's words, blushing furiously as she ran into the apartment block, and up the stairs.

_No no! Stay down there you- _Jareth groaned inwardly, fantastic, now Sarah would be out on the ledge as WELL...  
Jareth waited, and a few moments later, he saw Sarah step out onto the ledge, trembling, and looking down every few seconds.  
_Stupid girl, she's going to fall to her death, _thought Jareth, watching as worriedly as an owl being crushed by a child could.  
Sarah almost toppled off of the ledge, leaning back against the wall sharply, and gasping for breath.  
_Damn._ Jareth decided there was nothing else for it, he began to morph back to his usual form, the wings growing into arms, and his neck becoming longer, and his face formed where the owl was, eventually he ended up sitting beside Toby, and down below, there were cries of awe from the crowd of stupid humans.  
Jareth stood up, lifting Toby with him, and made his way calmly along the ledge - when you can turn into a bird at the drop of a hat, heights aren't exactly a bother - when he reached Sarah, who was leaning back against the building, wishing she hadn't bothered going up, a managed to get his other arm around her waist, and pull Toby and Sarah back through the wall, deciding that using his magic wasn't a problem any more, since SARAH had forced him to morph...  
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DECIDE TO DO THAT FOR?!" demanded Jareth, the second they were inside someone's apartment "Everything was FINE!"  
Sarah looked at him, still shaking, and remained silent.   
Jareth paused, it was becoming more apparent that she was utterly terrified. Great. NOW he didn't know what to do.

"Look! A big crowd of peoples!" cried Flopsy, as Mopsy stumbled over every stone and twig on the ground, due to hair induced blindness, "Let's go say he-llo!"  
The pair made their way over, pawing through the legs of the crowd to the front, stopping right in front of Sally Barnes and her TV crew.  
"He-llo Lady!" said Flopsy, pausing to make sure she even had the gender right, since she was only the height of Sally's knee, if even.  
Sally looked down, and gasped, "What are you?"  
"Me?" said Flopsy, looking around "I'm a Flopsy."  
"I'm a Mopsy!" chimed in Mopsy, grinning.  
"Excuse me?" said Sally, kneeling down "Is that your name? Flopsy?"  
"Yes." said Flopsy, holding up her hand "I have butter."  
Within two seconds of that statment, there were buttery finger prints all over Sally, and Flopsy was being told off for it.  
"I didn't meeeaaan iiit!" she said tearfully, looking up at Sally.  
"Yeah! YOU MEAN!!" yelled Mopsy, and whacked Sally's ankle with her crutch.  
"You little freak!" yelled Sally angrily, standing up, and raising her hand to smack Flopsy, or Mopsy, or both.  
Either way, the both cringed below her, waiting for the blow.  
"If you would be so kind as to not beat my Fireys ..."

To be continued again!


End file.
